Lost Confidence and Human Capability: A Hermeneutic Phenomenology of the Gendered, yet Capable Subject
In this contribution to Text Matters, I would like to introduce gender into my feminist response to Paul Ricoeur’s hermeneutic phenomenology of the capable subject. The aim is to make, phenomenologically speaking, “visible” the gendering of this subject in a hermeneutic problematic: that of a subjec...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Lodz University Press
2014-11-01
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| Series: | Text Matters |
| Online Access: | https://czasopisma.uni.lodz.pl/textmatters/article/view/6432 |
| _version_ | 1818084777185509376 |
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| author | Pamela Sue Anderson |
| author_facet | Pamela Sue Anderson |
| author_sort | Pamela Sue Anderson |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In this contribution to Text Matters, I would like to introduce gender into my feminist response to Paul Ricoeur’s hermeneutic phenomenology of the capable subject. The aim is to make, phenomenologically speaking, “visible” the gendering of this subject in a hermeneutic problematic: that of a subject’s loss of confidence in her own ability to understand herself. Ricoeurian hermeneutics enables us to elucidate the generally hidden dimensions in a phenomenology of lost self-confidence; Ricoeur describes capability as “originally given” to each lived body; but then, something has happened, gone wrong or been concealed in one’s loss of confidence. Ricoeur himself does not ask how the gender or sex of one’s own body affects this loss. So I draw on contemporary feminist debates about the phenomenology of the body, as well as Julia Kristeva’s hermeneutics of the Antigone figure, in order to demonstrate how women might reconfigure the epistemic limits of human capability, revealing themselves as “a horizon” of the political order, for better or worse. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-10T19:59:17Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-9e244e1a10044494add26992702ff5ce |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2083-2931 2084-574X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-10T19:59:17Z |
| publishDate | 2014-11-01 |
| publisher | Lodz University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Text Matters |
| spelling | doaj.art-9e244e1a10044494add26992702ff5ce2022-12-22T01:35:35ZengLodz University PressText Matters2083-29312084-574X2014-11-014315210.2478/texmat-2014-00036432Lost Confidence and Human Capability: A Hermeneutic Phenomenology of the Gendered, yet Capable SubjectPamela Sue Anderson0University of OxfordIn this contribution to Text Matters, I would like to introduce gender into my feminist response to Paul Ricoeur’s hermeneutic phenomenology of the capable subject. The aim is to make, phenomenologically speaking, “visible” the gendering of this subject in a hermeneutic problematic: that of a subject’s loss of confidence in her own ability to understand herself. Ricoeurian hermeneutics enables us to elucidate the generally hidden dimensions in a phenomenology of lost self-confidence; Ricoeur describes capability as “originally given” to each lived body; but then, something has happened, gone wrong or been concealed in one’s loss of confidence. Ricoeur himself does not ask how the gender or sex of one’s own body affects this loss. So I draw on contemporary feminist debates about the phenomenology of the body, as well as Julia Kristeva’s hermeneutics of the Antigone figure, in order to demonstrate how women might reconfigure the epistemic limits of human capability, revealing themselves as “a horizon” of the political order, for better or worse.https://czasopisma.uni.lodz.pl/textmatters/article/view/6432 |
| spellingShingle | Pamela Sue Anderson Lost Confidence and Human Capability: A Hermeneutic Phenomenology of the Gendered, yet Capable Subject Text Matters |
| title | Lost Confidence and Human Capability: A Hermeneutic Phenomenology of the Gendered, yet Capable Subject |
| title_full | Lost Confidence and Human Capability: A Hermeneutic Phenomenology of the Gendered, yet Capable Subject |
| title_fullStr | Lost Confidence and Human Capability: A Hermeneutic Phenomenology of the Gendered, yet Capable Subject |
| title_full_unstemmed | Lost Confidence and Human Capability: A Hermeneutic Phenomenology of the Gendered, yet Capable Subject |
| title_short | Lost Confidence and Human Capability: A Hermeneutic Phenomenology of the Gendered, yet Capable Subject |
| title_sort | lost confidence and human capability a hermeneutic phenomenology of the gendered yet capable subject |
| url | https://czasopisma.uni.lodz.pl/textmatters/article/view/6432 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT pamelasueanderson lostconfidenceandhumancapabilityahermeneuticphenomenologyofthegenderedyetcapablesubject |